Special Nature of Verbs in Sign Languages (original) (raw)
Related papers
TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, 2020
This paper is concerned with the special nature of sign language verbs, in particular to this research, Irish Sign Language verbs. We use Role and Reference Grammar to provide a definition of the structure of lexical entries that are sufficiently rich and robust in nature to represent Irish Sign Language verbs. Role and Reference Grammar takes language to be a system of communicative social action, and accordingly, analysing the communicative functions of grammatical structures plays a vital role in grammatical description and theory from this perspective. This work is part of research on the development of a linguistically motivated computational framework for Irish Sign Language. In providing a definition of a linguistically motivated computational model for Irish Sign Language we must be able to refer to the various articulators (hands, fingers, eyes, eyebrows etc.), as these are what we use to articulate the various phonemes, morphemes and lexemes of an utterance. Irish Sign Language is a visual gestural language. The fact that Irish Sign Language has no written or oral form means that, for us to represent an Irish Sign Language utterance in computational terms we must implement the use of a humanoid avatar capable of movement within three-dimensional space. Here, we provide an account of the grammatical information that can be found within Irish Sign Language verbs. We use the Signs of Ireland corpus to access the relevant linguistic data pertinent to Irish Sign Language. Further to this we use ELAN software as an application tool, which allows us to view the corpus and collate relevant linguistic phenomena pertinent to Irish Sign Language. We utilise the Event Visibility Hypothesis in the development of our proposed lexicon architecture. The computational phonological parameters for Irish Sign Language manual features and non manual features are defined within a framework, which we refer to as the Sign_A framework, where the "A" within this The Nature of Verbs in Sign Languages: A Role and Reference Grammar account of Irish Sign Language Verbs TEANGA, Special Issue 11, pp. 67-99 68 title refers to Articulatory Structure Level. We leverage the Sign_A framework, and in particular, Articulatory Structure Level, in the development of a linguistically motivated computational definition of lexicon entries that are sufficiently robust in nature to represent ISL verbs within the Role and Reference Grammar lexicon.
A Linguistically Motivated Computational Framework for Irish Sign Language
2019
This research is concerned with the development of a linguistically motivated computational framework for Irish Sign Language (ISL) and defining a lexicon architecture that is sufficiently universal and robust to accommodate the linguistic phenomena pertinent to sign languages, in particular to this research ISL, in linguistic terms. To date, there is no definition for the architecture of the ISL lexicon in computational terms. ISL is a visual gestural languages articulated in 3D space with no written or aural form. ISL is a linguistically complete, very rich and complex language. Communication across sign languages occurs using visual-gestural modality, encompassing Manual Features (MFs) and Non-Manual Features (NMFs). MFs include hand shapes, hand locations, hand movements and orientation of the palm of the hands. NMFs include the use of eye gaze, facial expression, mouthing, head and upper body movements. The visual gestural realisation of a word in SL involves
Computing the Lexicon Morphological-Phonological Interface for Irish Sign Language Sign Realisation
2015
The first modern linguistic analysis of a signed language was published in 1960 by William C. Stokoe, Jr., a professor of English at Gallaudet University, Washington DC, the only college for the deaf in the world. Nearly sixty years on, research in the area of sign language linguistics has established that signed languages are fully developed natural languages with their own syntax, morphology and phonology. The morphology and phonology of signed languages is concerned among with manual and non-manual features. These include handshapes, head, torso, eyebrow, eye, cheek, mouth, nose, chin and tongue movement and also movement of the shoulders. On application of various phonological rules these are used to represent the morphemes, phonemes, phonomorphememes and lexemes of Sign Language. This paper is concerned with determining the computational lexicon morphological-phonological interface of Irish Sign Language Sign (ISL) for sign realisation. We provide an outline of our proposed com...
Moving Heads and Moving Hands: Developing a Digital Corpus of Irish Sign Language.
Ireland,< i, 2006
This paper outlines the establishment of the first digital corpus of Irish Sign Language (ISL) using a software programme called ELAN. The Signs of Ireland comprises 40 signers making it the largest digital annotated corpus of a signed language in Europe. This paper describes the way in which such software enhances sign linguistic research, and outlines some of the limitations that arise, in great part, because of the lack of a standardized notation system for signed languages, because of the need for human consistency when working on annotation, and the fact that you will 'get out what you put in' when working with a digital corpus: that is, the decisions made regarding the annotations influence analysis results.
This paper outlines the establishment of the first digital corpus of Irish Sign Language using a software programme called ELAN. The Signs of Ireland comprises 40 signers making it the largest digital annotated corpus of a signed language in Europe. This paper describes the way in which such software enhances sign linguistic research, and outlines some of the limitations that arise, in great part, because of the lack of a standardized notation system for signed languages, because of the need for human consistency when working on annotation, and the fact that you will 'get out what you put in' when working with a digital corpus: that is, the decisions made regarding the annotations influence analysis results.
… Project'. Paper presented …, 2006
This paper outlines the establishment of the first digital corpus of Irish Sign Language using a software programme called ELAN. The Signs of Ireland comprises 40 signers making it the largest digital annotated corpus of a signed language in Europe. This paper describes the way in which such software enhances sign linguistic research, and outlines some of the limitations that arise, in great part, because of the lack of a standardized notation system for signed languages, because of the need for human consistency when working on annotation, and the fact that you will 'get out what you put in' when working with a digital corpus: that is, the decisions made regarding the annotations influence analysis results.
Detransitivisation in Irish Sign Language
3rd Intersign W orkshop Siena, 1999
Irish Sign language (ISL). These allow the signer to diverge from the prototypical features of a transitive sentence Thompson 1980, Givón 1990): where an Agent/Actor argument is high on a scale of topicality or salience and a Patient/Undergoer argument is correspondingly low on the scale. This scalar positioning is reflected by representing these arguments as subject and object, respectively. We identify three processes which signal the downgrading of an Actor argument and one which allows the promotion of an Undergoer. Since these are elements of voice alternations in many languages, we compare our analyses with proposals by Janzen et al. (forthcoming) to identify a rule of passive in ASL. Finally, we consider the added value that corpus tagging can bring to further analyses of similar data in ISL.